


A Kiss of Life

by cozywilde



Series: Smoochtober [31]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Loneliness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 03:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21264200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cozywilde/pseuds/cozywilde
Summary: Sami said he would return, but Aluhk is alone.





	A Kiss of Life

**Author's Note:**

> [Aluhk](https://toyhou.se/3394797.aluhk), an aquatic monster trapped in a subterranean cavern  
[Sami](https://toyhou.se/3541493.sami), a monster hunter who befriends him

Dozing in the dark, Aluhk begins to wonder if Sami has forgotten him. 

It has happened before. A visitor ventures into the cool darkness of his cavern, disturbing his still waters, sometimes even hitting rocks together to produce warm, flickering light by some magic Aluhk can’t identify. Once Aluhk makes himself known most flee and never return, unless they come back with companions and sharpened steel. But… he had thought Sami was different. 

Sami returned, many times, and never with weapons. He stroked Aluhk’s scales and claws with curiosity rather than fear, caressed his tentacles with intrigue rather than revulsion, let Aluhk touch his soft skin and hair in return. He awakened something long-forgotten, something… before the cavern. Before the darkness. Before the loneliness. 

Sometimes in his dreams now, he is him, but a different him. He stands on two legs like Sami, with hands like his, hair like his, a soft mouth like his. He is small enough to swim through the cavern’s narrow entrance, to follow Sami into the world he tells tales of, where there is Sun and Sky and Stars. Sami said with magic he could shapeshift and make his dreams real, but Aluhk is not like Sami. He is clumsy with his magic, sending the water roiling and splashing around him but leaving his stubborn body unchanged. 

He is content, though. Or he was. Now he is hurt, but not like the hurt of a blade sinking into his flesh. This hurt is deeper. It is the hurt of knowing he will spend uncountable time alone in the darkness, seeing only the sickly blue-green glow of his own eyes, hearing only the gentle lap of the water, smelling only wet stone - and blood? 

Aluhk stiffens, tentacles curling through the water. His jaws open wide, tasting, and it’s unmistakable. Not the cold blood of a fish, but warm, vital in a way that’s alien to his cavern. 

_ Sami.  _

Limbs pulled tight to his sides, his tail carves through the water to propel him forward at speed. He holds his mouth open to follow the taste, guilty at how it makes him salivate even in his panic, terrified at how strong it is. 

He reaches the mouth of his cavern. Sami is not there. Aluhk bellows, but there is no response. No Sami, but his blood is stronger than ever, and Aluhk’s sturdy body is simply too big to follow further. 

Aluhk snaps his jaws. Thinking quickly is not a skill he has had to cultivate. He usually has endless hours to let his thoughts meander, but Sami is bleeding now.  _ Dying  _ now. He gathers his will, focuses it in and in, and  _ pushes.  _

He bellows in pain, but it is not the same as before. The pitch changes as he does, condensing, the rumble of his voice becoming a burbled yell. Aluhk wastes seconds he does not have drifting, muscles twitching in new arrangements, eyes blinking fitfully at their altered field of vision. He is not sure the shift is exactly right - he is not soft like Sami. He has his claws, his tentacles, his teeth. 

But when he kicks forward, he is small enough to pass through. 

The glow of his eyes illuminates a familiar figure, drifting. Aluhk catches him in careful claws and drags his limp weight up and forward, away from his cavern. He can breathe the water. Sami cannot. 

They surface, and Aluhk coughs the water out, breathes air instead. It is natural to him, even in this altered form. But Sami does not cough, nor does he breathe the air. 

“Sami?” Aluhk says. He does not recognize his own voice. Perhaps that is why Sami does not answer. He knows the thought is foolish as soon as he thinks it. 

He drags Sami to a wet shelf of stone. There is a pouch of cloth there, and things made of leather. They smell like Sami. 

Sami does not smell like Sami. He smells like blood, and out of the water, Aluhk can see it bead across his forehead. When Aluhk leans over him there is no warm puff of breath across his scales - no, his skin now - and Aluhk  _ keens.  _ This cannot happen. He will not let it. But… underneath Aluhk’s hand on his chest, under the sodden layers of his clothing, there is still warmth. And, faintly, slowly, a heartbeat. 

Aluhk pulls over Sami’s cloth pouch, and tilts his head to slide it under. Water dribbles from Sami’s mouth, and Aluhk blinks. Sami cannot breathe water. It must be blocking the air. 

Hopeful, Aluhk keeps Sami’s head tilted, but while a little more water dribbles out he still does not breathe. Aluhk growls his frustration.  _ What else can I  _ do?  _ Breathe for him?  _

Breathe for him. 

He raises a hand to his own mouth. Aluhk’s fangs are still there, but they are hidden behind soft lips. Soft lips like Sami’s, who blows playful bubbles at him. Air. 

Aluhk tilts Sami’s head back, nudges his jaw open. He leans down, and awkwardly fits his lips over Sami’s, and breathes. 

The first breath simply gusts out, wasted through Sami’s nose. Aluhk growls again, pinches it shut with unfamiliarly dextrous claws. The next is shaky, the fit of their lips not quite right. On the third, Sami’s chest rises as Aluhk’s falls, and he does it again, again. He loses count. 

Sami,  _ please.  _

A shudder, a wracking cough, and Aluhk has to jerk back lest Sami’s flailing body hit one of his spikes or claws, causing further injury. “Sami!” he says, trying to catch his arms, stop him from rolling back into the water in his panic. 

Sami is too weak to offer much resistance once Aluhk catches him, sagging against his chest with thin, wheezing breaths. They sound painful, but Aluhk is glad to hear them. 

“Who -?” Sami coughs thickly, squinting up at him. “Who are… Aluhk?” His eyes widen, and Aluhk nods. “How did you…?” 

“I smelled… blood. Yours,” Aluhk explains, brow furrowed. For all his thinking, it is difficult to put those thoughts into words that Sami can understand. “I came.” 

“But… did you shapeshift? How’d you manage it, I thought you still hadn’t been able to -?” Sami breaks off into coughs again, and Aluhk waits until he stops to answer. 

“You needed me.” 

Sami blinks, confusion on his blood-streaked face. “But… the magic, how -?” 

Aluhk places a finger over his lips. “You needed me.” He watches the confusion in Sami’s eyes shift, closer to the wonder Aluhk recognizes in himself when Sami tells him stories of the world above. And now, Aluhk can join him. He ducks his head, careful with his teeth as he presses their lips together. It is much better when Sami responds with a soft murmur, a shift of his mouth in return, and this time the breath is shared between them. 


End file.
